Dramatic scenes took place when two teenagers were winched to safety from a cliff ledge, with waves crashing below them.

The pair became trapped on the ledge at Whitby, North Yorkshire, while fossil hunting on Tuesday, after the tide came in without them realising.

They were spotted by a lifeboat crew, but the off-shore boat could not get to them because the water was too shallow, yet too rough for the small inshore boat.

An RAF Sea King helicopter from RAF Boulmer, in Northumberland, was called in and the teenagers were hauled to safety.

Pilot Colin Massy said: “The boys were cold, wet and a bit shaken-up, but not hypothermic.

“They were very fortunate, the situation was very precarious.”